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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

I've decided to hold off a few weeks on the Tyranids. I had meant to go to the store to pick up a Hive Tyrant, but didn't have the time. Good thing, too!

GW is doing a new army for the new year thing and putting out a bunch of getting started bundles. They'll be selling a Hive Tyrant, 3 Warriors and 10 Gargoyles all in a box for $85. It should go up for preorder on Friday. With what I already have, that'll be a nice core to an army.

I'll post pics of what I intend to do this weekend once the preorders go live.

Monday, December 28, 2015

So, Christmas has come and more or less gone. As per normal, I didn't get anything hobby related. I don't think most people have any real understanding of how I spend my free time, so I tend to get jackets and socks and things like that. I'm appreciative. Everyone needs jackets and socks. Sometimes, you'd just rather have a robot.

To whit, I bought myself a couple of Christmas gifts that I'll be using to do some conversions. First up is a Gundam model. This thing is fully pose-able and I haven't decided on a pose yet. I'm thinking it might end up as a Ghostkeel, but I need to do some work. I want to build a Tau themed should pad like the Fire Warriors have, and also some better weaponry. I'm torn on the head. It looks pretty much like a Drone, so I might leave it as is, but with some antennas.

Next up is my new army for the new year. This will probably be my big project for 2016. I know the Tyranid Codex is terrible right now, but there is a rumor that it will be updated in early 2016. I'm going to start off with some staple units that I'll most likely be able to use in any army list. The first box I'm working on is some Termagants. I'll be doing Devourers on these guys. It's an Assault 3, S4, AP- weapon with a medium range. I've gone up against these before and they do well on sheer weight of fire. The box also comes with seven small Rippers that I can use to make Ripper Swarms. In addition to the seven, I just won an eBay auction for nine complete bases of them. I think the 9 bases have something like 28 individual Rippers. I'll probably crack them apart, dress up the bases and put two Rippers on each base. That'll give me a potential for 17 bases. From what I understand, Ripper Swarms with the Deep Strike option are the gold standard for Troops choices in a Maelstrom game.

As you can see, the assembly line is beginning!

More to come sooner than later. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Monday, December 14, 2015

I haven't died or anything. I promise. This is a rough time of year from a work standpoint. I'm the only person working on two software projects in addition to my normal job... which is NOT as a programmer!

I have been doing a little painting, but not nearly enough. I'll post pics as soon as I have a chance. I've been spending way too much time dealing with life's obligations lately.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Well, mostly painted. I still need to do work on the guns, the base and a bunch of smaller details. The below is about two hours worth of work and fits in pretty well with the rest of my army. Once it's fully completed, I'll post some pictures with other elements of my army to show that it does, in fact, fit in pretty well.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

I've been wanting to get myself a Ghostkeel so that I can run the Optimized Stealth Cadre Formation. With it being this close to Christmas, though, I can't really justify spending much money on myself. I happened upon a posting where somebody had spray painted one of the below models silver and was using it as some sort of Necron C'tan counts-as. I thought to myself... this is exactly what I need.

The model is a Hulkbuster Suit Iron Man for a Disney video game called Infinity. You set the model on top of a little platform and then you can use them in game. The model cost me 14 USD at a store where I had some store credit. In other words, sort of free!

Step one was to cut off the base. I want this model to blend in as much as possible with my existing army. Consistent basing is a really good way to make this happen. Cutting through that much vinyl dulled several razor knives and cut up my fingers pretty good. But... success!

Thankfully, the bottom of his feet will not be visible!

Once the annoying vinyl base was stripped off, I glued him, along with some cork, onto a flying base. This official Ghostkeel comes with a 105mm oval base. This guy is on a 120mm oval base, so he's a little bigger. I doubt anyone will notice or complain. It'll just make him a bigger target.

Now to add on a big Ion weapon and a couple of Fusion Blasters, along with some other Tau bits and bobs. I also used some wooden furniture discs to give that rounded Tau look in a couple of places.

In the next two phots, you can see that he's imposing, but definitely fits in with the rest of the army. The aesthetic is a little off, but I think a paint job will go a long way towards covering that up. I'm still looking for a small Tau logo that I can shave off of something else and put on him somewhere... likely on his shoulder pad.

I can't wait to get a little paint on this guy. I'm hoping that the weather holds up and I can get him primed and painted this weekend.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

I know that I haven't been consistently posting over the last couple of weeks. This is mainly because I have nothing to report.

I think sometimes hobby 'oomph-ah' comes and goes in waves. Right now, I'm in a little bit of a valley. My car was deemed a total loss after a collision, so money has been tighter than normal while I've been sorting this out. As a direct result, I haven't been able to pick up any of the new Tau stuff or the Betrayal at Calth set that is coming out this weekend.

I'm hoping to have everything sorted within the next couple of weeks and to get back to business soon.

Monday, November 9, 2015

I'm pretty excited by the final studio pics for Maelstrom's Edge. I have really high hopes for this game. It looks like they're on track to deliver at some point in December, so it's likely I'll consider this a Christmas gift for myself whenever it arrives.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

I was kind of excited about the prospect of more Arcadia Quest, so I decided to paint the Goblin Archers that come with the core set. I'll be slowly going through and painting all the minis, but it takes quite a bit of time. I think it really adds to the game to have something other than grey plastic.

I expect that you'll be seeing more Arcadia Quest minis mixed in with my Warhammer projects over the next several weeks.

Monday, November 2, 2015

I think I've mentioned this before, but if not, here goes. If you like board games and Final Fantasy Tactics style game play, you should totally buy a copy of Arcadia Quest. It's put out by CoolMiniOrNot. Definitely head to their website and check it out.

I'm mentioning it today because I recently became aware of a new Kickstarter to add a new campaign box. The game works off a six game campaign cycle, so the concept of having new heroes, new tile maps, new monsters and new upgrade cards is kind of exciting.

It looks like this new set will be based off a demons and angels motif. Looks pretty cool. I think the Kickstarter should be launching at some point in the next two weeks or so. I'm sure I'll post about it again when it happens.

Friday, October 30, 2015

I know the posts seem to have dropped off a little this week, but there is a good reason. I was involved in a car accident and my car was totaled. I'm battered and bruised, but generally ok. My focus has clearly been elsewhere. My intent is to refocus and restart this weekend.

The Skitarii elements were actually pretty solid. The Dragoon and both Sicarian units were rock stars. The Sicarians held up 6 Wraiths and 10 of the jump Necrons for basically the entire game. They would have chewed through softer units. The Wraiths having a 3++ is a killer.

The real issue with my list was that the Space Marines, the Vindicare and the Plasma Obliterator were almost entirely useless. I don't think any of them made their points back. As much as I want sniper rifles to be useful, they just aren't. The Vindicare has less than a 50% chance of doing a wound, assuming you stay away from Hellfire rounds. That's not very good for a 150 point model. The Plasma Oblit clocks in at 230 and MAYBE made it's points back.

I need to rethink the Space Marine elements. I think I might be far better off using Tau Empire as allies until I can invest in a larger AdMech army. I love the idea of the Conclave formation, but that would entail buying an Imperial Knight as well as about 6 boxes of Cult Mechanicus. I might end up going that route, but only if I can find a way to save up and afford it. I have so many unfinished projects, that I've cut my hobby budget back pretty dramatically.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

I really need to roll the sand stage into the assembly stage in my mind. For some reason, I assemble the model, glue some cork to the base and call it a day. Then, when I go to prime the model I realize that I need to glue sand down and then wait for it to dry. Ugh.

So, here is some sand...

This first guy will be the Prime for the 10 man Rangers unit.

The 6 man Vanguard unit...

And the 5 man Ranger unit. One dude is already painted, so he's not pictured.

And thanks to the magic of leaving this window open for several hours, a primer coat!

Monday, October 19, 2015

I haven't been doing much assembly lately and got the modelling bug. Instead of filling my empty project bin with something already assembled - and Emperor knows I have plenty - I decided to throw in a box that needed some work.

I bought a second box of Rangers/Vanguard a while ago and only pulled out the Arquebus bit to give my first unit two. I can't believe only one of each weapon comes in a 10 man box given that the rules allow you to take three of each in a 10 man unit. I was left with 10 bodies, two Plasma Calivers, two Arc Rifles and a whole host of Prime bits.

After a relatively small amount of thought, I decided on two 5 man units. One will be Rangers with the two Arc Rifles, an Arc Pistol, an Arc Maul and an Omnispex. Here they are...

You'll note that there is one painted guy. I decided to take one of the spare bodies and make a proper Prime for my previously painted 10 man unit. I haven't quite decided how to equip him yet, but he's replacing one of the painted dudes in the first 10 man unit. That'll make these 5 guys quicker to paint. This is my Haywire squad. They're vehicle killers.

Next up is the Vanguard unit. You'll notice that there are 6 of them and that one looks a little... non standard. The tracked body is actually a Taurus Gun Tractor base from Anvil Industries. If you're unfamiliar with them, you should check them out. They're awesome. The Taurus Gun Tractors can be purchased here.

I gave the two Plasma Caliver guys fancy looking heads. I did this partly to set them apart and partly because they have little optics on the side of their helmets. That will totally make the dice roll better... right?

The Prime has the cog mohawk helmet. I gave the tracked Vanguard dude the Omnispex. I'm optimistic that he'll look better when he's painted. The body is the unused hatch guy from the Onager Dunecrawler kit. I think he looks like a tiny Kataphron.

The goal is to get these guys sanded and ready for priming in a day or two. I just don't have it in me right now. I know that's ridiculous since it only takes about five minutes, but it is what it is.

Friday, October 16, 2015

I got some additional motivation and decided to complete my ten man Skitarii Rangers unit by finishing the second five man block. If you visit my blog with any regularity, the rest of this post is going to look very familiar.

I primed the last dude and let them dry a little. It was pretty hot and windy outside today, which is basically perfect conditions for a primer coat to dry almost immediately.

I started with a dry brush of Leadbelcher on all of the appropriately metallic looking bits.

I then based the coats with Xereus Purple. On a side note, I tend to use a lot of cool, dark colors. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that I like them. The second is more important. They're easy. The human eye is awesome at seeing red and green. The human eye is not good at seeing blue or combinations thereof. Purple and blue are both forgiving. If I were painting the coats green, I'd have to do a much better job at getting a smooth coat.

After the Xereus Purple, I did a quick highlight of Genestealer Purple. This mainly makes the hoods pop as well as the corners of the coat. Without this highlight, the models look a little flat on the battlefield.

The appropriate bits were picked out in Balthasar Gold. It's not really important that the models all have the same bits picked out. The idea is just to provide an accent color. This color is nice for these guys since that old coppery color works well for the clockwork nature of the models. If I was really motivated, which I'm not, I would do a turquoise patina to make the copper bits look old and corroded. Not really worth it for this army.

The eyes and lenses are picked out in Moot Green for a little contrast.

The basing gets the standard Rhinox Hide...

...Steel Legion Drab...

...and Flayed One Flesh dry brush treatment...

...with Steel Legion Drab rims.

And of course, the models are finished off with tufts of Mordheim Turf. I think I'm going to need to buy more of this stuff soon. I've been using a lot of it lately.

Here is the newly painted five dudes hanging out with the five I recently painted. this completes the ten man Skitarii Rangers unit. The pointing guy is the Prime. I didn't really see any point in giving him upgraded weaponry. In my experience, you're almost always better off having a longer range gun than a pistol. Also, upgraded melee weaponry seems silly. If these guys are being assaulted, I've already lost them.

And here is a group shot showing the entire army. On deck I have another box of Rangers/Vanguard that will probably be assembled as a five Rangers and five Vanguard. I'm dong this so I can take advantage of the fact that I'll be able to put two special weapons in each five man unit.

I'll probably pull my light box out soon and take some higher quality shots of the individual units. I like to post the better quality versions on various forums.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

This is just a quick run down of where I'm headed with my AdMech Skitarii army. The Skitarii Maniple Detachment is great to work with. You only need two Troops choices to start an army...

There are tons of optional things you can take. Also, unlike the overwhelming majority of non-Combined Arms Detachments, you're allowed to take a Fortification.

As I type this, I only have one Troops choice painted. Project #8, "MOAR Rangers", is currently in process and will be the second Troops choice.

I think I'll end up with this, which is basically a Battle Maniple Formation with an extra unit of Rangers. I have to finish painting 5 models and then assemble/paint 15 more. That's basically 4 "bin projects" of 5 models each using my current organizational scheme. Should take a couple of weeks, depending on what else comes up... like new Tau?

Monday, October 12, 2015

I need to paint up more Rangers to get my AdMech army to a playable state. I bought a second box and pulled the big, sniper looking gun out of it. The goal is to ultimately have a ten man unit with two of the big weapons and then to assemble my other ten dudes as two five man Skitarii Vanguard units with one special weapon each.

Nothing much to report here, but as you can see, four of the models are already primed and ready to go while the fifth requires a primer coat. I would have done it tonight, but it's pitch black outside. Heavy cloud cover and no real outdoor lights equals priming isn't on the table.

More to come soon. I hope to have these painted before the next update.

Friday, October 9, 2015

It's kind of funny. Since I instituted my new organizational scheme, I've been cranking models out left and right. My intent was originally to show my process over the course of several days, but I'm really just saying "Oh, here's something new... it's finished!" I can't really complain though. I'm ecstatic that I'm getting through my backlog.

This was the first unit I purchased for the AdMech army. I assembled them and then got immediately annoyed that not enough special weapons were included to make full squads using the same weapon. So, I grumped. The act of grumping, in case you don't know, involves just sitting with your arms crossed and saying "HARUMPH" in the general direction of anyone who walks near. I don't know... I just find it super irritating that the kits don't allow you to equip a standard unit how the rules say you can.

Enough complaining. Here is what you came for...

Here they are primed. You'll notice that one dude in the back is already painted and has a wet transfer on him. He was my initial test model. I can't remember exactly when, but I painted him months ago.

I started out with a dry brush (as I so often do) of Leadbelcher on all the appropriate sections.

I them moved on to a base coat of Xereus Purple... on the coats. Get it? Base coat on the coats? Tip your waitresses, all be here all week.

I did a very quick highlight of Genestealer purple on the corners of the coat and on the hood. Check out the hood on the left especially. It's really just three lines. The corners of the cloak are like slightly concave triangles. Super quick.

I then painted certain bits in Balthasar Gold. I think I hit the shoulder pads, the knee pads and a couple other odds and ends. I didn't take a picture of the backs, but I hit a couple of spots on the backpack to make it stand out a little more.

The eyes and a couple of other optic looking sensors got him with Moot Green. I was a little too sloppy in places and had to clean up the hoods. I was using a standard brush and should really have used a fine detail brush... which was waaaaayyyyyy over on the other side of the room.

Base... standard... Rhinox Hide...

...followed by Steel Legion Drab...

...and finally Flayed One Flesh.

Don't forget the Steel Legion Drab rims!

Or the Mordheim Turf grass tufts. And that's it. I think these five (well, really four as one was already painted) took me about an hour total. They won't win any awards, but this is more about getting them painted and on the table.

As you can see below, my AdMech Skitarii force is slowly growing and is almost to the point where I can field it. I think the army is starting to look really nice together.

...

I've been collecting and painting models since I was about 12 years old. My painting improved dramatically after a short stint working for Games Workshop. I'm always looking for the next challenge and the next skill I can learn.